I want to be Cher when I grow up.

December 21, 2012 4:01 PM

What makes the difference between a good academic campus interview and a great one?

I just got the call that I'm one of three candidates interviewing for a very exciting job prospect (it's a tenure-track position in the humanities). Mercifully, they've given me over a month to prepare for the campus visit, so I want to make sure that everything is as tight as can be.

I've come in second a few times now, and I don't want that to happen again. I understand that there are so many factors out of my control, but I want to make sure that I control all the things that I can.

For those of you who have either been academic candidates yourselves, or have witnessed a campus visit, what advice comes to mind? How can I pull this off?

posted by anonymous to Education (9 answers total)

Once they've invited you to campus, they think that your work is fine enough to be tenurable. The point of the campus visit, in my eyes, is to demonstrate that you're going to be a good colleague (this means a lot of things, but being pleasant at faculty meetings, being good and reliable to work with on committees, not effing up while teaching, etc.).

I was on the market for the last 3 years. Last year, my first year on the market post-PhD, I had a lot of interviews and successfully got a TT job. I also have witnessed two job searches in my own (new) department.

If you don't already, please start reading The Professor Is In's blog NOW.

Some brief thoughts
- act like an adult, not a grad student
- act like an adult that they'd want to be colleagues with

And read this question that I asked last year that is essentially the same as yours now.
posted by k8t at 4:08 PM on December 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

The single most useful thing you can do is to research the faculty in the department (particularly the faculty you will be meeting) so that you can talk to them about their work.
posted by medusa at 4:49 PM on December 21, 2012

k8t's recommendation of the previous thread is excellent (as is Medusa's reminder to check out the faculty/department before you go--it helps if you have some understanding of the courses they've got on the docket, as well as everyone's research specialties). From the previous thread, I'd third the FOR CRYING OUT LOUD DON'T OVER-IMBIBE AT DINNER comments, and would add, from personal irritated experience, that you ought to refrain from a) hugging your interviewers and b) breaking their fingers when shaking hands.

Following the directions and time limits is important, yet a lot of people seem to figure that they can ignore what we've asked them to do and still make a good impression.

If your presentation involves any sort of technology, make sure that it will work on-site. If at all possible, have a non-tech backup (e.g., handouts to replace PowerPoint slides).

Teaching demos, if you have to do one, are really tough for all concerned. If you're being dumped into someone's class (which is how we do it), then see if you can get a syllabus beforehand so that your demo has at least some relation to what's going on. (And see my point #1 about time limits: the instructor is losing the day's class, basically, so if you're told "take thirty minutes," then please take only thirty minutes.)

Asking informed questions makes an excellent impression: it shows that you're interested in the university and area.
posted by thomas j wise at 6:12 PM on December 21, 2012

What I was going to say, I already said in the thread k8t linked. But I will repeat again one point for importance. If you've been invited for an interview, one or more people in the department have already decided they want to hire you. You can probably guess who they are.

Your job is to convince the rest of the department that they want to hire you

(Caveat: I know this advice is good for math hiring, not sure it's good for humanities hiring.)
posted by escabeche at 7:02 PM on December 21, 2012

My department has done a lot of hiring in the past couple of years. The candidates from campus visits whom we liked the best tended to be the ones who treated the visit like a really neat opportunity rather than a chore, and seemed to be taking it seriously but not terrified-seriously.

A few specific elements:
1) Say yes to anything they "suggest" or "offer" to do with you. Get lunch with grad students, go out to dinner, let somebody show you around X Y and Z - fair or not, people who ask to duck out of activities sometimes look like they don't like being there.

2) Don't talk about your other visits unless prompted.

3) Have questions to ask your hosts. These don't need to be questions about their work or even the academic field at all. People like to talk about what they know and where they're from, so ask about what it's like to live and work in the town. Where's the best Thai food? Where are the bike trails? Where should you try to live/avoid? This not only keeps conversation going, but also makes it sound like you really have an interest in settling down for a while at College X and won't take the job and disappear after a couple of years, leaving the department in a cruddy place. This has been a really major factor in hiring decisions, especially since the current economic climate is such that new hires aren't guaranteed in a lot of departments when somebody quits/dies.

I'll try to think of more - feel free to MeMail me as well.
posted by Rallon at 9:15 PM on December 21, 2012

One thing I've noticed in administrative searches (at the same public university as escabeche) is that there's a lot of emphasis on "fit." This is critical particularly in these economic times, when the prospect of losing a colleague or having to redo searches within a few years will be an extra pain in many ways.

Obviously you want a job. Are you a good match for the culture of the department? For the culture of the college or university? For the city and community?

You're selling your academic cred, and if you get this job you will have an impact on the direction of this department for potentially the next several decades. Whew! So really take the time to interview THEM, inside and outside your own head. As you do so, that will give you the information you need to present yourself as the ideal colleague.

That goes so much further than how many papers you've published or the way you advise your students.
posted by Madamina at 9:24 PM on December 21, 2012

This AskMe also has some excellent advice.
posted by infini at 1:31 AM on December 22, 2012

My experience of sitting on interviewing boards is that my colleagues are absolute suckers for a show of enthusiasm. Surely anyone can fake enthusiasm for a few hours? I guess they are sort of right, in that if you can't even fake enthusiasm for a few hours, you probably are not going to be a useful, energetic colleague.

So don't play it cool and sophisticated, let your enthusiasms show through. Talk about your successful projects, and about things you want to try. As for a formal interview, think of stories you could tell about yourself and your actions which reinforce the picture you want to give -- hard-working, persevering, a "team-player" of sorts, someone students can trust. Ask about other people's experiences with whatever -- the classes, the library system, promotion. Ask advice -- a lot better for building bridges than the giving of advice (you don't have to take it!) Be nice to everyone, non-academic staff have scuppered many an appointment by reporting arrogant behaviour.

If you are female or a single parent, you should explicitly explain how your family responsibilities won't affect your ability to do the job. (Married fathers normally get a free pass on that one.) Good interviewing rules may prohibit interviewers from asking about childcare etc, which makes it important to volunteer the info in case assumptions quietly sway decisions.

Dress and act like the target group you want to join, erring on the side of dressing and acting a little more formally. You can scour the website for pictures to give you an idea of the local dress code.

And, as Rallon said above, sound like you mean to stay a reasonable length of time.
posted by Idcoytco at 6:05 AM on December 22, 2012

Once they've invited you to campus, they think that your work is fine enough to be tenurable.

But for God's sake don't disabuse them of this notion.

Know your shit. Know your work, and what relates to it, like the back of your hand. You don't want to be surprised by a "How does your work relate to this other work that really is related?" question, but it's okay if you can't answer an obviously crazy question from the department's Crazy Uncle Ivan.

Research the department and its norms a little bit. There are departments where showing up not in a suit is disrespectful and frivolous, and departments where showing up in a suit means your the sort of asshole who wears suits to fly. This also helps with...

Think about answers to common questions. "Why here?" is an obvious one, to which the honest "I need a job" isn't really going to hack it. If they have a thing, you need to like it, even if you wouldn't normally. Not lying, just believing invalid truths. Another question I heard recently that I thought was really good and have stolen -- "Who do you see writing your external letters in a few years, and why?" Think about courses you might teach, prepare sample syllabi for courses you might be expected to teach but haven't taught yet, etc.

Hit the Chronicle forums too for horror stories about what to avoid. Don't get wasted, don't hit on anyone, etc.

Also, remember two things:

Which wallet is yours? Yours is the one that says BAD MOTHER FUCKER on it. By having an interview, you are through the major hurdles and your naive odds have gone from one in maybe hundreds to one in three. You, sir or madam, are a certified badass. There is, probably, nobody on the planet who understands your topic and why it matters as well as you do, and they're interested in hearing about it. So own that shit.

But at the same time, remember that the hiring process is terrifyingly random for both good and, more commonly, for ill. If you don't get the nod, that doesn't necessarily reflect ill upon you, and it isn't necessarily about you.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:32 AM on December 22, 2012 [3 favorites]